“A Womanist Worship”
A service using the star’s story, songs and spiritual struggles has New Yorkers crazy in love after wowing worshippers in San Francisco. It’s called the Beyonce’ Mass.
Is this real? Yes, it’s real. The masses are the brainchild of the Rev Yolanda Norton who, inspired by Beyoncé’s “physical and emotional and spiritual struggles”, put together a service that uses her story and songs as an alternative to traditional Christian worship.
Norton, 37, created the womanist worship service after she gave her Hebrew Bible students at San Francisco Theological Seminary an assignment to tell black women’s stories using Beyoncé’s music in a worship setting. She then developed a full liturgy that was presented at her seminary’s chapel, and later at an event that drew about 1,000 people to San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral in 2018. Most recently was a March 8 event at the Kennedy Center in DC.
“We are not worshipping Beyoncé,” Norton said, twice repeating her answer to an oft-asked question. “It is a Christian worship service and we are focused on the mission movement of Christ in the world and we are trying to promote a gospel message of love, inclusion and social justice.”
Ok, this is getting creepy. Through a song like “Flaws and All,” a staple of Beyoncé Mass wherever it has been held, Norton said, the singer’s music can be sung as a prayer by women facing a range of emotions as they encounter God. Worshippers gathered at the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn and Harlem’s St James Presbyterian to hold Beyoncé masses, building upon last April’s inaugural Beyoncé mass held in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral.
Spirit Possession
Apparently most of the ‘worshipers’ don’t know that Beyonce’ has a spirit guide that takes over when she is performing, or they simply don’t care. Enter Beyonce’s alter ego, Sasha.
Beyoncé has expressed in several interviews that while she is performing, another person (Sasha) takes her over and causes her to do things that she would not ordinarily do. While in this out of body state, she loses consciousness of her body. During an interview in 2008 with the magazine Marie Clarie, Beyoncé states: "I have out-of-body experiences (on stage). If I cut my leg, if I fall, I don't even feel it.”
Using quotes like the one above, Christian observers believe that she is channeling the spirit, which happens to be evil. They describe channeling as when a human enters an altered state of consciousness which allows the person open to become a channel for the spirit of another, who can then use the channel to speak and take limited actions (Beyoncé Channeling the spirit of “Sasha Fierce").
In a 2008 interview, Beyoncé talks about her relationship with Sasha and how this spirit took over her right before her performance for the BET awards show.
Beyonce Mass
Norton discovered that people beyond her seminary were interested in the service that combines worship and women’s rights.
“Because of the response that we got in San Francisco, we have accepted invitations to go various places across the world to do the mass,” she said in an interview.
Beyoncé Mass has been presented, in partnership with churches and religious educational institutions, 10 times, including in New York, in Portugal and in early March as the kickoff to “Women’s Herstory Month” at the chapel of Spelman College, a historically black women’s school in Atlanta. In Washington, as elsewhere, it attracted a predominantly black female crowd but included people of a variety of ages, races and gender identities.
Every Beyoncé Mass is a little different. The one in Washington did not have its usual Communion service because of coronavirus concerns.
Norton said Beyoncé’s music is fitting for a service that focuses on womanist theology, the intersection of gender, class and race and the empowerment of the marginalized across the African diaspora.
“It represents something about the kind of stories that black women encounter in the world all the time,” said Norton. “In her music we see her as mother, we see her as mourner, we see her as wife, we see her as activist, a person struggling with their own body image and identity.”
After the ensemble sang a portion of Beyoncé’s “Heaven,” male and female worship leaders took turns reading names of black women, including Sandra Bland and Atatiana Jefferson, who had died as a result of police actions. Later, after the singing of “I Was Here,” a video played featuring women telling their stories of being among the first in their career fields and desiring to improve society for others.
So what happens? According to reports, the mass is made up of black female officiants, dancers and singers, and uses sermons and scripture readings to meditate on race and gender among African Americans.
And people actually go to this? In droves. The San Francisco mass drew a crowd of 900 to a service that usually only attracts 50. Or as an observer squipped “Beyoncé is officially 18 times more popular than Jesus.”
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“Now therefore, make confession to the LORD God of your fathers, and do His will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from pagan wives” (Ezra 10:10).
“And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play” (1 Corinthians 10:7).
